Borley Rectory, Essex

History

Borley Rectory was a Victorian mansion which was built in 1862 by Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull. He moved into the rectory a year after it's construction after becoming Reverend of the nearby church.

The
building was apparently built on the site of a 14th century Benedicine
Monastery. The most popular story linked to this monastery is the legend
told of a nun from the Bures convent, 7 miles southeast of Borley
falling in love with a monk from the monastery.

They
decided to elope to be together, but the elders discovered their plans. A
friend of the monk was to drive a carriage to help them escape, but on
the fateful night they were captured by the elders. The coachman was
beheaded, the monk hanged and the nun was bricked up alive in the walls
of the vaults beneath the rectory.

Many people
consider this story to be true, while others say that it was made up by
Rev. Henry's children. Whatever the truth is about this story, it
certainly could have happened, as it was considered a serious crime at
the time.

Hauntings

The very first records of paranormal activity at Borley Rectory
occurred in 1863 when locals heard unexplained footsteps in the house.
Also in 1900, 4 of the daughters reported seeing a ghostly nun in the
grounds wandering around, before vanishing... By 1927 the ownership had
changed hands and the Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved in.

Soon
after moving in Mrs Smith uncovered a girl's skull hidden in a paper
bag in a cupboard and shortly after this the family reported a wide
variety of phenomena including bells ringing, lights appearing in
windows and more unexplainable footsteps. The intensity of the phenomena
increased leading to the family contacting the Society for Physical
Research, The Daily Mirror newspaper and a renowned paranormal
investigator, Harry Smith.

In 1929, the Foyster family
took residence at Borley Rectory. STILL the activity continued including
messages scribbled onto walls, stone throwing and the Foysters daughter
being attacked by "something horrible". Twice the Reverend Foyster
tried conducting an exorcism, but to no avail. During the second
exorcism the Reverend was struck in the shoulder by a "fist-sized"
stone, thrown by an unseen force.

In 1938 Helen
Glanville conducted a Planchette séance (planchette being french for
"little plank" - what we would today call an Ouija board) in South
London. She reportedly made contact with 2 spirits who were haunting the
rectory. 1 was apparently a French nun, Marie Lairre (who claimed she
was murdered on the land in 1667) and the second was a male entity
called "Sunex Amures" who said he would burn down the rectory at 21:00
that night and that the bones of a murdered person would be uncovered at
the time.

The prediction came true, not on that night
but the same day exactly one year later in 1939, when an oil lamp was
knocked over starting a fire. Shortly afterwards, 2 bones of a young
woman were uncovered, along with a Saint Ignatius medal. Could these
have belonged to Marie Lairre, the nun? Pictured below is a famous shot
of a spirit captured on camera in the grounds of the building which many
people believe to be the ghost of the Marie....

Pictured below; A Ghostly messaged scribbled on an envelope and scraps
of paper. Shortly after moving in the the rectory, Marianne Foyster
found an old, faded envelope with her name on the back. In reply she
wrote "what do you want?" and put the envelope back in it's original
location. The next time she looked at it a reply had been scribbled,
saying simply "rest". Again, many people believe this to be the work of
the spirit of Marie Lairre.

Pictured below: When Life magazine created an article on the hauntings
of Borley rectory in 1944, the photographer snapped this shot that
appears to show a brick floating in mid-air through a burned-out section
of the building.

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